Performance depends on captain and players, says Syed Kirmani

Bangalore: Former wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani welcomed Ravi Shastri's appointment as Team India Director but said the ultimate responsibility of team's performance lies with the captain and his players.

"It is a very welcome change to start with - Let A, B, C or D be the incharge of cricket operations or as a head coach or a bowling coach or any. The whole thing depends on the captain and his team to perform," Kirmani told reporters.

Kirmani even pointed out that India won the 1983 World Cup without the services of a coach or a director.

"All these (appointments) are an added profession in this great game of cricket. We have never had a coach or any support staff in our time. Still we won the 1983 World Cup."

"At the moment, the Indian team is going through a very bad patch which was unexpected like India's World Cup victory in 1983. On this basis, the entire responsibility is on the captain and the team to perform," he said.

India should look into the shortcomings and learn lessons from the defeat at the hands of England, Kirmani said.

The ace wicketkeeper said there has to be a lot postmortem done on the team's debacle in England.

"A lot of rethinking has to take place for sure. A postmortem also has to be conducted," he said.